5 Tips For When Homesteading Gets Overwhelming

I can’t even begin to tell you how enormously blessed my family has been in the last six months. We should be drowning, but through the grace of God, we are still going strong.

I am so grateful for all that we’ve been blessed with, but there are some days that I feel so overwhelmed by this homesteading life. With the kids now in school and my husband working, 90% of all the work falls to me. I know that there is no way that the Lord brought me here just to have me give it up or not do something amazing with our little piece of land.

I absolutely know that homesteading isn’t easy, and it can be extremely overwhelming, but there are a few things we can do to ease our frustrations.

5 Tips For When Homesteading Gets Overwhelming

Prioritize

This wasn’t always easy for me. When I’d look around at everything that needed to be done, it felt like everything was a priority.

Our relationship with Jesus – This is first and foremost in everything I do. If it’s not glorifying God, if we’re not doing it for Him and WITH Him, then everything else is just going to fall apart. By making sure we are getting in our quiet time with Jesus in the morning, going to Him in prayer, praising Him during the good and bad times of our lives, we will be strengthening our relationship with Him and our days will go by so much easier. Jesus has an excellent way of putting things into perspective for us. When we just don’t know how we can go on, He’ll always give us the strength we need.

Safety and health issues – If there are problems around your homestead that present a safety or health issue, they need to be addressed before you can start doing anything else. There is no point in putting your time, effort and money into getting animals right away if you don’t have the supplies you need to keep them safe.

Be flexible

I’m a planner! I like to know what we are doing, how we’re going to do it, and when we’re doing it. I have learned though, that not everything can be planned out and even the most carefully laid out plans, will not always work the way you anticipated. You have to be willing to change things up a bit and let go a little bit of the control.

Get organized

Have you ever tried working on a project and find that you don’t have the tools or supplies where you thought you put them? Or how about getting ready to cut the grass only to find out that there is no gas in the mower or in the gas can? It’s frustrating and it can make you want to give up before you even get started. Just as our time needs to be organized in our homes, so does the projects we are doing around the homestead.

Create a routine that works for you

Every one of us has different responsibilities and lifestyles. A routine that works really good for one homesteader may not necessarily work good for you. Take a look at what responsibilities you have and create a routine that works around those responsibilities. Now that my husband works away from the homestead and my children are in school, I have to readjust my routine so I can be sure I’m available to get the kids off to school before I tend to the animals, housework or yard work.

Scale back

It is absolutely okay to say, “Ya’ know what, this is way too much right now.” Everything has a season and if something feels extremely overwhelming, it may not be the right time for that particular thing in your life. When we moved, I rushed everything and I didn’t wait on God’s timing. I insisted we get a garden going, and we get our chicks. I felt whole-heartedly that everything had to happen RIGHT. AWAY. My husband tried to tell me that not everything had to happen in the first few weeks we were here, but I was stubborn and I couldn’t see past my own selfish desires. I created a heck of a lot of work for all of us, a bunch of friction and tension in the family and all of us were exhausted and overwhelmed.

Hello there! I’m Becca, follower of Jesus, blessed wife to Dan, my high school sweetie and mama to 7 wonderful blessings. Living up to the standard that God has set for us in Proverbs 31 is no small task and the Proverbs 31 woman sure did leave some big shoes to fill. I’m here to help encourage you with articles written about marriage, family, parenting, homemaking, and homesteading. My mission is to encourage and inspire wives and mothers. Learn More